Modified Illinois Maintenance Guidelines and Child Support

The new Illinois maintenance guidelines will take effect on June 1, 2018 and may have impact modifications of divorce judgments. The new guidelines appear to be silent on whether or not the new guidelines constitute a substantial change of circumstances sufficient to modify a judgment. When the new child support guidelines took effect, the legislature specifically provided that the enactment of Public Act 99-764 did not constitute a substantial change in circumstances warranting a modification of child support. See 750 ILCS 5/510(a). The same does not appear to hold true for Public Act 100- 0520 regarding the new maintenance guidelines. While one may assume that the legislature did not intend for this effect, one may also wonder why a specific provision providing otherwise was not specifically included. Will practitioners or litigants race to the courthouse seeking to modify judgments as a result of the new statute?